Page 8 of Tin God

So much flannel.

“Boys! This is Brigid.” Lev clapped her on the shoulder. “She’s here to kill Zasha.”

There were a few grunts, a couple of nonchalant waves, and a lot of nodding.

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

“Welcome.”

“Good luck.”

Then everyone returned to what they were doing before she and Lev had walked in.

“Come,” Lev told her. “Let me show you to your room.”

“Has he asked?”

Lee Whitehorn was tapping on his computer keyboard, which was the position she usually caught him in whenever she video-called.

“Your angry husband?” Lee didn’t stop tapping. “Uh… no. I’m pretty sure he knows you’re calling me, but he hasn’t asked because if he asks he knows I won’t lie to him?—”

“Because you refuse to lie.”

“Exactly. And if he knows for sure that I’m talking to you, he’ll ask me where you are?—”

“Which you would tell him.” She rubbed a hand over her freshly washed head and contemplated keeping it shaved to a buzz cut indefinitely. It felt so good.

“Exactly. But then you’d find out that I told him where you were and you’d stop calling me for help.”

And Carwyn wouldn’t want to leave her stranded without Lee’s resources because she’d be less safe. “Got it.”

“So where are you?”

“A fishing camp in the back arse of Alaska.”

“Huh.” He glanced at the camera, which was streamed to the private virtual assistant he’d built for their house and electronic devices. “And how’s that?”

“Cold and dark.”

“Vampire heaven?”

“No, I prefer dark and warm. Think Jamaica at night.” She’d been in Jamaica at night. It was marvelous.

“How’s the tablet working?”

Lee, being their own resident computer genius, had taken their old Nocht-compatible mobile devices, hacked them, and inserted his own operating system since he didn’t trust anyone, including her old boss, who had created the first vampire-compatible mobile operating system that could be worked entirely by voice command.

Elemental vampires destroyed electronics.

Earth vampires like her husband could handle things longer, but fire vampires like Brigid were especially prone to shorting things out just by touching them. She’d lost multiple mobile phones from keeping them in her pocket too long.

“The tablet is working fine.” She watched the screen of the small tablet that was halfway between a mobile phone and a computer. “It survived the dogsledding trip with no damage.”

“Seriously?” That had Lee looking up from his typing. “Dogsledding?”

“According to my host, humans ’round here use snowmobiles, but vampires break them, so we go by skis, boat, or dogsled to get around.”

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